Gore loses in the court but wins in the recount

By Toby Harnden in Tallahassee

12:00AM GMT 24 Nov 2000

AL GORE last night suffered another legal blow to his hopes of becoming president but was cheered by hand recount results that showed him picking up scores of votes in South Florida with hundreds more still to be assessed.

The Florida Supreme Court denied his request to order officials in Miami-Dade, the most populous of Florida's 67 counties, to reverse their decision to abandon their recount. This left him relying on the continuing recounts in Broward and Palm Beach to overcome George W Bush.

In a terse statement issued during the Thanksgiving holiday, the seven judges said: "The writ is denied without prejudice. No motion for rehearing is allowed."

The other two recounts were likely to be completed by the court's deadline of Sunday afternoon with the candidate declared the Florida winner at that point likely to become president. Mr Bush was clinging to an official lead of 930 votes but Mr Gore had unofficially gained an extra 213 votes in Broward by last night.

As lawyers, party representatives and live television cameras looked on, election officials examined some 1,900 disputed ballots individually to discern "voter intent". If light shone through a "dimpled chad" ballot then it was counted as a vote, almost invariably for Mr Gore. The chad is the perforated square of paper on a punch ballot that voters are instructed to dislodge. A dimpled chad is a tiny indentation that Democrats claim indicates an intent to vote.

While he still appeared to have the upper hand, there was no let up from Mr Bush. His lawyers appealed to the US Supreme Court, the country's ultimate authority, to act to prevent "the ascension of a president of questionable legitimacy or a constitutional crisis".

Bob Dole, a Republican elder statesman, said Americans would tire of the legal wrangling after Thanksgiving, which was first celebrated by colonists in 1621 who wanted to express their gratitude to God for a plentiful harvest.